Black Friday Do’s And Dont’s

Will you be done with your Christmas shopping by the end of Black Friday? Will you venture out Thanksgiving night to shop? You most likely won't see me out there, but I wish you luck you shop 'til you droppers.

These Black Friday do's and don'ts will help you score the best deals — whether you want to shop from home in your pajamas or venture out to the stores (perhaps in something other than PJs).

DON'T rely solely on leaked ads to plan your Black Friday strategy. Plenty of Web sites specialize in publishing Black Friday ads before they appear on retailers' Web sites or in newspapers. You can use these leaked ads as a starting point for planning your purchases, but realize that you're reading gossip, says Dan de Grandpre, CEO of dealnews.com, one of our favorite deal sites. Inevitably, some of the information in leaked ads is wrong, he says. Most legitimate ads aren't published until the Sunday before Black Friday.

DO expect some Black Friday sales to start on Thursday. Many retailers will start offering discounts online on Thanksgiving day. And some, such as Amazon, will offer Black Friday deals several days before November 25 — so hot items may sell out before the big shopping day after Thanksgiving.

DON'T assume the best deals are in the stores. It's a tradition for a lot of people to get up at the crack of dawn and camp out in front of stores to scoop up deals. But de Grandpre says a lot of doorbusters (those deeply discounted items retailers use to get consumers in the door early Friday) will be available online, too — especially on big-ticket products. And if an Apple product is on your gift list, you'll probably find it for less online (at Amazon.com, MacMall.com or McConnection.com) than at an Apple store — and you may escape sales tax on your purchase.

DO brave the crowds if you're trying to snag an extremely limited item. You have a better chance of getting the deal if you go to the store — and are first in line. Keep in mind, though, that items that are marked down dramatically are cheap items to being with — not top-selling, name-brand products, de Grandpre says